The inhibition of phosphodiesterase 9A (PDE9A) is one of the current concepts to find new access paths to the treatment of cognitive impairments due to CNS disorders like Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and other diseases or due to any other neurodegenerative process of the brain. With the present invention, new compounds that follow this concept are presented.
Phosphodiesterase 9A is one member of the wide family of phosphodiesterases. These enzymes modulate the levels of the cyclic nucleotides 5′-3′ cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and 5′-3′ cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP). These cyclic nucleotides (cAMP and cGMP) are important second messengers and therefore play a central role in cellular signal transduction cascades. Each of them reactivates inter alia, but not exclusively, protein kinases. The protein kinase activated by cAMP is called protein kinase A (PKA) and the protein kinase activated by cGMP is called protein kinase G (PKG). Activated PKA and PKG are able in turn to phosphorylate a number of cellular effector proteins (e.g. ion channels, G-protein-coupled receptors, structural proteins, transcription factors). It is possible in this way for the second messengers cAMP and cGMP to control a wide variety of physiological processes in a wide variety of organs. However, the cyclic nucleotides are also able to act directly on effector molecules. Thus, it is known, for example, that cGMP is able to act directly on ion channels and thus is able to influence the cellular ion concentration (review in: Wei et al., Prog. Neurobiol., 1998, 56, 37-64). The phosphodiesterases (PDE) are a control mechanism for the activity of cAMP and cGMP and thus in turn for the corresponding physiological processes. PDEs hydrolyse the cyclic monophosphates to the inactive monophosphates AMP and GMP. Currently, 11 PDE families have been defined on the basis of the sequence homology of the corresponding genes. Individual PDE genes within a family are differentiated by letters (e.g. PDE1A and PDE1B). If different splice variants within a gene also occur, then this is indicated by an additional numbering after the letters (e.g. PDE1A1).
Human PDE9A was cloned and sequenced in 1998. The amino acid identity with other PDEs does not exceed 34% (PDE8A) and is never less than 28% (PDE5A). With a Michaelis-Menten constant (Km) of 170 nanomolar (nM), PDE9A has high affinity for cGMP. In addition, PDE9A is selective for cGMP (Km for cAMP=230 micromolar (μM)). PDE9A has no cGMP binding domain, suggesting that the enzyme activity is not regulated by cGMP. It was shown in a Western blot analysis that PDE9A is expressed in humans inter alia in testes, brain, small intestine, skeletal muscle, heart, lung, thymus and spleen. The highest expression was found in the brain, small intestine, kidney, prostate, colon and spleen (Fisher et al., J. Biol. Chem., 1998, 273 (25), 15559-15564; Wang et al., Gene, 2003, 314, 15-27). The gene for human PDE9A is located on chromosome 21q22.3 and comprises 21 exons. 4 alternative splice variants of PDE9A have been identified (Guipponi et al., Hum. Genet., 1998, 103, 386-392). Classical PDE inhibitors do not inhibit human PDE9A. Thus, IBMX, dipyridamole, SKF94120, rolipram and vinpocetine show no inhibition on the isolated enzyme in concentrations of up to 100 micromolar (μM). An IC50 of 35 micromolar (μM) has been demonstrated for zaprinast (Fisher et al., J. Biol. Chem., 1998, 273 (25), 15559-15564).
Murine PDE9A was cloned and sequenced in 1998 by Soderling et al. (J. Biol. Chem., 1998, 273 (19), 15553-15558). This has, like the human form, high affinity for cGMP with a Km of 70 nanomolar (nM). Particularly high expression was found in the mouse kidney, brain, lung and liver. Murine PDE9A is not inhibited by IBMX in concentrations below 200 micromolar either; the IC50 for zaprinast is 29 micromolar (Soderling et al., J. Biol. Chem., 1998, 273 (19), 15553-15558). It has been found that PDE9A is strongly expressed in some regions of the rat brain. These include olfactory bulb, hippocampus, cortex, basal ganglia and basal forebrain (Andreeva et al., J. Neurosci., 2001, 21 (22), 9068-9076). The hippocampus, cortex and basal forebrain in particular play an important role in learning and memory processes. As already mentioned above, PDE9A is distinguished by having particularly high affinity for cGMP. PDE9A is therefore active even at low physiological concentrations, in contrast to PDE2A (Km=10 micromolar (μM); Martins et al., J. Biol. Chem., 1982, 257, 1973-1979), PDE5A (Km=4 micromolar (μM); Francis et al., J. Biol. Chem., 1980, 255, 620-626), PDE6A (Km=17 micromolar (μM); Gillespie and Beavo, J. Biol. Chem., 1988, 263 (17), 8133-8141) and PDE11A (Km=0.52 micromolar (μM); Fawcett et al., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 2000, 97 (7), 3702-3707). In contrast to PDE2A (Murashima et al., Biochemistry, 1990, 29, 5285-5292), the catalytic activity of PDE9A is not increased by cGMP because it has no GAF domain (cGMP-binding domain via which the PDE activity is allosterically increased) (Beavo et al., Current Opinion in Cell Biology, 2000, 12, 174-179). PDE9A inhibitors may therefore lead to an increase in the baseline cGMP concentration.
This outline will make it evident that PDE9A engages into specific physiological processes in a characteristic and unique manner, which distinguishes the role of PDE9A characteristically from any of the other PDE family members.
WO 2004/099210 discloses 6-arylmethyl-substituted pyrazolopyrimidinones which are PDE9 inhibitors.
WO 2004/099211 discloses 6-cyclylmethyl- and 6-alkylmethyl-substituted pyrazolopyrimidines and their use for the improvement of cognition, concentration etc.
DE 102 38 722 discloses the use of PDE9A-inhibitors for the improvement of cognition, concentration.
WO 2004/018474 discloses phenyl-substituted pyrazolopyrimidines and their use for the improvement of perception, concentration learning and/or memory.
WO 2004/026876 discloses alkyl-substituted pyrazolopyrimidines which and their use for the improvement of awareness, concentration learning capacity and/or memory performance.
WO 2004/096811 discloses heterocyclic bicycles as PDE9 inhibitors for the treatment of diabetes, including type 1 and type 2 diabetes, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, impaired glucose tolerance, metabolic syndrome and/or cardiovascular disease.
WO2009068617 discloses PDE9 inhibiting compounds derived from pyrazolopyrimidinones with a substituted phenylmethyl- or pyridyl-methyl group in the 6-position.
WO2010112437 discloses PDE9 inhibiting compounds derived from pyrazolopyrimidinones with a phenyl or heteroaryl substituted arylmethyl- or heteroaryl-methyl group in the 6-position.
WO 2009/121919 discloses PDE9 inhibitors derived from pyrazolopyrimidinones with a non-aromatic heterocyclyl group in the 1-position, among which is tetrahydropyranyl.
WO 2010/026214 discloses PDE9 inhibitors derived from pyrazolopyrimidinones with a cycloalkyl or a cycloalkenyl group in the 1-position, among which is 4,4-difluorocyclohexyl.
Some prior art is directed to chemically nucleoside derivatives. As examples it is referred to WO 2002/057425, which discloses nucleoside derivatives, which are inhibitors of RNA-dependent RNA viral polymerase, or WO 2001/060315, which discloses nucleoside derivatives for the treatment of hepatitis C infection or EP679657, which discloses compounds that serve as ribonucleoside analogues or US2002058635, which discloses purine L-nucleoside compounds, in which both the purine rings and the carbohydrate ring (pentose ring) are either modified, functionalized, or both. So the carbohydrate ring for example must show at least one esterified hydroxy group.
WO 2005/051944 discloses oxetane-containing nucleosides, for the treatment of nucleoside analogue related disorders such as disorders involving cellular proliferation and infection.
WO 2006/084281 discloses inhibitors of the E1 activation enzyme that have a sulfonamide moiety.
WO 1998/40384 discloses pyrazolopyrimidinones which are PDE1, 2 and 5 inhibitors and can be employed for the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disorders and disorders of the urogenital system.
CH396 924, CH396 925, CH396 926, CH396 927, DE1147234, DE1149013, describe pyrazolopyrimidines which have a coronary-dilating effect and which can be employed for the treatment of disturbances of myocardial blood flow.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,732,225 describes pyrazolopyrimidines which have an anti-inflammatory and blood glucose-lowering effect.
DE2408906 describes styrylpyrazolopyrimidinones which can be employed as antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory agents for the treatment of, for example, oedema.